1. Field of Invention
This invention relates generally to a hand tool, and more particularly is directed towards a hand tool for cutting overlapping carpets, pads and the like simultaneously in the same stroke, so that two, one-above-the-other, parallel cuts in the overlapped carpet portions are simultaneously made, the carpet backings thereby being identically severed in mirror fashion, available for abutting joining to provide an invisible seam.
2. Prior Art & General Background
The installation of carpeting on the floors of homes, office buildings, theatres and the like usually requires a considerable amount of trimming or cutting. In the case of wall-to-wall carpeting, for example, the outer edges of the carpeting must be carefully trimmed to conform to the shape of the floor that is being covered; and confronting edges of adjacent widths of the carpeting must be carefully matched to avoid unsightly seams.
Furthermore, in the case of pile carpets, wherein successive rows of piles extend parallel to one another, it is usually desireable to cut or trim the carpet along a straight line between adjacent rows of pile.
In the past it has been customary to trim pile carpeting with a hand tool or cutter containing a razor blade, which projects from the bottom of the tool just far enough to penetrate through the carpet backing, when the tool is drawn longitudinally along the space between adjacent rows of pile. Some such tools have also included a projecting rib or guide to help guide the cutter longitudinally between adjacent rows of pile. Commercial examples of some such cutters are available from Crain Cutter Co., Inc., (Milpitas, CA) and Roberts Consolidated Industries, (City of Industry, CA).
For other examples of carpet cutters note the following patents.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,064,627, issued to Zanfini on Dec. 27, 1977, is directed to a carpet cutter which is particularly arranged for use with a carpet tacking strip, having a flange about which the carpet secured to it is wrapped, so as to provide a finished edge for the carpeting, without the use of molding, etc., at the edge.
The cutter of U.S. Pat. No. 3,363,314 to G. S. O'Brien issued on Jan. 16, 1968, includes a vertically arranged guide member and angled cutting blades having edges which face outwardly in opposite directions lying adjacent the vertically arranged guide member. The blades are used for trimming an upwardly turned edge of the carpeting, which is anchored to a tack strip, as the cutter is pushed. The cutter of U.S. Pat. No. 3,934,341 to Carlson issued on Jan. 27, 1976, may be used to trim an even strip of carpet around the boundary of a pad or prelaid carpet prior to the installation of new wall-to-wall carpeting.
Another problem, which is encountered when two sections of carpet must be installed adjacent one another, concerns the difficulty in cutting two perfectly straight, parallel edges on the two different sections, so that the severed, abutting edges can be joined to provide an invisible seam. This is the particular problem to which the present invention is directed.
With present carpet cutters, it has been necessary to make a separate cut in each section of carpet. Unless extreme care is taken with each cut, the severed edges will not abuttingly match satisfactorily.
A concurrent, double-cut cutter is disclosed by J. A. Summers in U. S. Pat. No. 3,621,573 issued on Nov. 23, 1971 (note FIGS. 5 & 6). The Summers cutter has a pair of cutter blades which are laterally spaced and located along the same horizontal plane, so that the blades make simultaneous, spaced, parallel cuts in adjacent sections of carpet. The concurrent, spaced cuts on the sections produce identical edges, which are thereafter placed together to form an almost invisible seam.
However, the severed portion of one of the cut carpet sections ends up under the adjacent carpet section, requiring it to thereafter be removed, in contrast with the present invention in which the severed parts of both carpet portions fall unto the top, exposed side of the adjacent carpet portion, respectively. Thus, the structure of the Summers cutter does not allow the carpet sections to be cut in an overlapping configuration, with for example the vertically spaced, one-above-the-other cutters located in different horizontal planes of the present invention.
Additionally, the Summers cutter requires the post-cutting movement of at least one of the carpet sections with respect to the other the distance of the laterally spaced cutter blades, in order to place the edges in abutment to form the invisible seam.
These added steps require an additional, significant expenditure of time and, in the case of heavy carpets, additional, substantial physical labor. Further, the Summers cutter does not allow the sections to be abutted while the cut is being made, allowing a chance for one of the carpet portions to shift and cause unidentical cuts to be made in the sections.
Additionally, the Summers tool, due to the lateral rather than vertical spacing of the cutter blades, produces a relatively bulky device.
The Summers cutter has been available to the art for a long period of time, and a commercial embodiment thereof, it is believed, has been unsuccessful and at least generally not used. For example the Roberts Model 10-909 "adjustable double cutter" (Roberts Consolidated Industries, City of Industry, CA) has been commercially unaccepted at least in the New Orleans, LA market area.
One object of this invention, therefore, is to provide an improved carpet cutter, which will cause a pair of overlapping carpet portions to be cut simultaneously with vertically spaced cutter blades and guides with the same cutting stroke for allowing parallel abutting cuts to be made, so that the severed edges on the carpet portions can be abutted exactly to form an almost invisible seam without the subsequent need for removing cut portions from under adjacent carpet sections or the need to substantially move laterally the cut carpet sections.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved carpet cutter which is compact and easily used, with a minimum of effort and labor.